Author: Primož Novak
Location: Orto bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 10.02.2014
Attendance: 30 – 40
Ticket price: €15/€18
Over the last couple of months, thrash metal fans have really been spoiled. There have been plenty of local shows, and among the international acts, two gigs made a real splash: Death Angel (report HERE) and Havok (report HERE).
On a rainy Monday, only a handful of thrash metal fans gathered at Orto Bar to back the new generation of thrash. The weak turnout wasn’t just down to the rain, either: Suicidal Angels simply haven’t proven themselves as anything innovative so far. Along with the Greeks, the bill included Fueled By Fire from the US, Lost Society from Finland and fellow Greeks Exarsis, which should have been more than enough to get thrashers out to support the young hopefuls who want to carry on the tradition of their heroes from the eighties.
With the youngsters of Exarsis, who kicked off the night, the performance itself deserves praise: it was undeniably energetic and tight. The band serves up fairly generic, heard-it-a-hundred-times thrash metal built on fast-tempo songs. The generic sound isn’t actually the problem, though. The vocals are. It’s a forced, high-pitched delivery that’s superfluous in new-school thrash bands and could easily be swapped for a more fitting tone. Exarsis, who have two albums behind them, might have some potential, but the quintet will have to do some serious rethinking if they plan to keep going with this kind of vocals, which not even earplugs can make more bearable.
Things looked a bit better with the young Finns Lost Society, whose image made them look like they’d walked straight out of some American high school in the eighties. In its own way a real breath of fresh air given how many black T-shirts there were, but on the other hand already kind of comical. Like the band before them, they dished out mostly fast songs from their debut Fast Loud Death. The vocals were definitely more bearable, though pretty clichéd, and they sort of match the riffs that sound like buzzing bees. Lost Society won people over with their energetic set. Even though Orto Bar was half empty, the first moshpit kicked off right away, and the band played as if they were performing in front of ten thousand people.
If the first two bands built up a solid, positive impression, it evaporated with the Americans Fueled By Fire. The band looked bored on stage. The singer, who also played guitar, was reminiscent of today’s version of Max Cavalera, standing on stage like a statue that moves every now and then. The songs weren’t as fast as Lost Society’s or Exarsis’s. Even the vocals were bearable and not overly forced, but unfortunately the band leans on old, »worn-out« tricks that just don’t come across today. You’d definitely have expected a better show from them, since they’ve been around the longest of all the bands on the bill, and that should have brought experience and a more professional approach, even with only 30 people in the room.
With Suicidal Angels, you’d honestly have preferred them to be just one of those opening bands that do their 20 minutes and get off. Suicidal Angels, who already have five albums to their name, presented this year’s fresh release Divide and Conquer. Unfortunately, the Greek quartet had nothing innovative to offer. Their sound came across like a cheap copy of Slayer, Exodus and old Metallica. The guitars sounded like listening to a beehive. The songs were predictable, with no surprises in the structures. Suicidal Angels came across like a band that time has run over. They didn’t even stir up any nostalgic feeling, because they summed up the ideas of eighties thrash metal bands in a pretty low-quality way. Even the stage banter was clichéd, Kreator-style, where a song’s slogan gets shouted three times for emphasis. The band did get some response from the crowd, so Suicidal Angels can be glad they have at least some support for their music. Whether the band will survive with all this generic sound in the flood of these »little bees« is hard to say. It would definitely be advisable for them to sit down and rethink their ideas, because albums with two interesting songs are way too common these days.
Judging by what we saw, if Warbringer and Havok are first-rate new-school thrash metal, then Suicidal Angels, going by this show, belong in the second-rate or even third-rate bracket. The turnout at the Suicidal Angels show matched that, even though youngsters like Lost Society and Exarsis could still seriously develop.
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